Fifth phase of voting in 49 constituencies today

 
Voting for the fifth phase of the Indian Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, which will decide the fate of four Union ministers, including Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani, and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, will be held on Monday. Voting will also take place for the assembly by-polls to Lucknow East assembly constituency.

The seats going to polls in the fifth phase are Mohanlalganj (SC), Rae Bareli, Amethi, Jalaun (SC), Jhansi, Hamirpur, Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambi (SC), Barabanki (SC), Faizabad, Kaisarganj and Gonda.

Besides Defence Minister Singh (Lucknow), Minister of Women and Child Development Irani (Amethi), those in the fray are Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishor (Mohanlalganj) and Minister of State of Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Fatehpur).

Rahul Gandhi is in the fray from Rae Bareli, which was represented by his mother and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi earlier.

Over 2.68 crore voters are eligible to exercise their polling rights and 144 candidates are in the fray.

On the other hand, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 19 condemned West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's remarks against the Ramakrishna Mission and Bharat Sevashram Sangha, alleging that she is "under pressure from Muslim fundamentalists" and "threatened" these socio-religious organizations to "appease" Trinamool Congress (TMC) vote bank.

Addressing back-to-back rallies in Purulia and Bishnupur, Mr. Modi stated that the TMC has crossed the limits of decency by spreading falsehood against ISKCON, Ramakrishna Mission, and Bharat Sevashram Sangha.